hem off. At the sight of a beautiful woman
elephants leave off all rage and grow meek and gentle. In Africa there
are certain springs of water which, if at any time they dry up, they
are opened and recovered again by the teeth of elephants." The blue
worm of the Ganges referred to is no doubt the crocodile; both in
India and Africa animals coming to the rivers to drink are seized by
lurking crocodiles, who fix their powerful jaws on to the face (snout
or muzzle) of the drinking animal and drag it under the water. Thus
the fable has arisen of the origin of the elephant's trunk as
recounted by Mr. Rudyard Kipling. A young elephant (before the days of
trunks), according to this authority, when drinking at a riverside had
his moderate and well-shaped snout seized by a crocodile. The little
elephant pulled and the crocodile pulled, and by the help of a
friendly python the elephant got the best of it. He extricated himself
from the jaws of death. But, oh! what a difference in his appearance!
His snout was drawn out so as to form that wonderful elongated thing
with two nostrils at the end which we call the elephant's trunk, and
was henceforth transmitted (a first-rate example of an "acquired
character") to future generations! The real origin of the elephant's
trunk is (as I will explain later) a different one from that handed
down to us in the delightful jungle-book. I do not believe in the
hereditary transmission of acquired modifications!

Topsell may or may not be right as to the result produced on elephants
by the sight of a beautiful woman. In Africa the experiment would be a
difficult one, and even in India inconclusive. Topsell seems, however,
to have come across correct information about the digging for water by
an African elephant by the use of his great tusks--those tusks for the
gain of which he is now being rapidly exterminated by man. Serious
drought is frequent in Africa, and a cause of death to thousands of
animals. African elephants, working in company, are known to have
excavated holes in dried-up river beds to the depth of 25 feet in a
single night in search of water. It is probable that the Indian
elephant's tusk would not be of service in such digging, and it is to
be noted that he is rather an inhabitant of high ground and
table-lands than of tropical plains liable to flood and to drought.
The tusk of the Indian elephant has become merely a weapon of attack
for the male, and there are even local breeds in